Kathryn and the Catacombs of Doom

Day 87

Today was my last day in Rome. I had gotten nowhere close to seeing everything that I had on my list. I guess that this is just one of those cities that I will always return to.

I had tried to visit the St. Agnes Catacombs a few days ago, but it had been closed. This time I recruited a guy from the hostel named Bruce to come with me. Catacombs were scary and this way I wouldn't have to go alone.

To both of our disappointment the bodies had been removed. Well, there were three skeletons left but there wasn't much of them. The catacombs dated from the 3^rd or 4^th century and were surprisingly well preserved. Many of the tombs still had their sealing slabs in place. It was also interesting to see how bits of older buildings had been reused throughout the structure. One sealing slab was probably once part of a four sided column. Our guide read aloud and translated the Latin inscriptions on the graves. Many of them said something like 'so and so aged 46 years and 78 days give or take. Why would they put the days if they were not sure?

In a few of the chapels the wealthier people had been buried. Here it was easy to see early Christian symbols of palm fronds and birds. The last chapel, accessible from the church at all times, was the tomb of St. Agnes and her sister. Both of them had been beheaded by the Romans for their religion.

The tour was a bit unsatisfying, mostly because we were unable to take pictures and Bruce joked that we should break in after the next tour. I didn't much care for that idea and instead we went to the nearby mausoleum for St. Costanza. Bruce was studying architecture and had read about this building in one of his classes. He had not been planning on visiting it but was happy when it turned out to be right next door to St. Agnes. We spent some time taking pictures of the circular building before heading back to St. Agnes to get pictures of the church.

When the group after ours came out we went down for another look at St. Agnes' coffin. The door to the catacombs was only locked from our side. No key was needed as it was opened on the other side by a push bar. The door was wrought iron and full of holes, but there was a piece of plexiglass above and below the handle. Bruce tried to reach in, but his arm was too bit and got stuck. He asked me to try. I didn't want to, not really. I made a half hearted attempt but couldn't quite reach. For some reason the whole idea became much more appealing when I thought it was very much like Indiana Jones. I tried again and I was just able to get the bar to move in and the door opened. This is where my adventure ends though. I was far too nervous about getting caught to go in. Bruce went in alone and promised to send me the pictures that he got. When he came out without any problems I sorta wished that I had gone in as well.

After taking the bus back into the center of Rome we headed to the Trevi Fountain. I was there the day before, but was able to get some better pictures.

Eventually we ended up at an intersection called the four corners. There is a fountain on each side. I think that this might have been in Angels and Demons. It seemed like a lot of the churches were closed at this point for lunch. We decided to go and check out one basilica that had been designed by Michaelangelo. I had been to this one before, but it was fabulous then and I wanted to revisit it.

After checking out the church we parted ways, Bruce back to the hostel for some work, and me to an internet cafe to work on the blog.

I made it back to the hostel just in time to get my free dinner. Afterwards I left, with a new friend from Oz named Emma, to meet up with Kaori and Katherine again. We had some pizza and chatted for quite some time. It was just like a night out with the girls at home except that we were in Rome and that is so much cooler!

I had to call it an early night because of a ridiculously early train. It was sad saying goodbye, but we all agreed to keep in touch.

Let the Crazy European Train Adventure Begin

Day 86

I had gone to sleep early the night before and was up and ready to go before they even had breakfast out at the hostel.

The Termini (Rome's main train station) is just a few minutes walk from where my hostel is. It wasn't long before I had my three month Eurail pass validated and ready to go. From here on out I am going to use the train as much as I can to get my moneys worth.

After an hours trip I got off in Orvieto. I had just sort of randomly picked this town out of my guidebook and did not realize that not only was it a hill town in Umbria, but also that I had seen it on a Rick Steves show.

Soon I had taken the funicular up to the town and had a ticket for tour of the Ovieto Underground. I had some time to kill before the tour and I was glad. The train had made me a bit nauseous and I wanted to let my stomach calm down before I started traipsing around caves. A diet coke and some pringles later I was good as new and headed to the Duomo.

The Duomo here wasn't that interesting from the inside. The outside is really the only part worth looking at. However, they do claim to have a piece of cloth that was dipped in Christs blood. They charge 5 euro to see it and I wasn't about to pay that so I skipped it.

When it was finally time for the tour I followed local Sofie with and a large group of tourists to the end of the town. Essentially the Etruscans began making the caves, at first for wells, and then later to store things. There is some evidence that the older caves might have had religious purposes. In 264 the Romans pretty much destroyed the entire Etruscan population and moved in. They began mining the caves for rock and concrete. In the middle ages these caves were repurposed for lots of different things. A lot of work, such as olive oil making, was moved below ground. They would even have their animals down here. Pigeons were also raised in the caves that faced the cliffs. This way they could fly out and eat during the day and have niches, or pigeon holes, to rest in at night. In 1632 the pope declared it illegal to use the caves. People were smuggling in good and not paying him taxes on them.

Today pretty much every house in Orvieto has a cellar that was dug out hundreds of years ago. Digging was completely stopped in 1900. In the 1970's one of the caves beneath an intersection fell in. Due to this the caves are inspected regularly and are often reinforced. It was a pretty good tour, I would recommend it.

There were a few more hours to go before I had to catch my train back. I headed to the Pozzo Della Cave system. This was much like the previous ones. Most of the structure was used as a kiln by medieval people. They had several trash pits and lots of pottery was found there. Modern versions of the broken pottery were created here. It was kinda cool to see what they would have looked like if they were all new again.

Some of the sections had been carved out by the Etruscans. As these sections had all been repurposed it was hard to tell what they originally were. One, however, did look like a cistern, and another was most likely a burial chamber.

After some pizza I walked the short way to St. Dominic's Church. There is no real reason to go here. The reason I went is because one of the wooden crosses was said to have spoken to St. Thomas d'Aquino. There were two crosses and I didn't know which was the chatty one so I just took a picture of both of them and left.

My last stop was St. Patrick's Well. This is what I had seen on Rick Steves. This massive well was built with two spiral staircases. One was for going up, the other for going down. It was a really amazing structure and I'm glad that I stumbled upon it.

I took the funicular back down and got on my train back to Rome. I was sitting in first class and before the conductor even looked at my ticket he told me to go to second class. I shook my head no and handed him my Eurail. If you are over 26 you are forced to buy the more expensive and first class version. No only would I be riding the rails, I would be doing it in style!

Back at the hostel I made a quick phone call and made some plans for that night. I had plans to meet with Katherine and Kaori from Naples. We were headed to a Belgium beer bar. This didn't work out though and we just went to a random pub type bar instead.

Three Italian guys basically hijacked not just our table, but the conversation. They didn't even ask if they could sit. They introduced themselves and told us that they were all cops. They were really rude. One of them tried to take a picture of Kaori without asking and she rightfully got upset. The same guy asked if I was a natural blond, when I said yes he didn't believe me. Eventually he told me that I must be a lot of fun. They didn't speak much English and Katherine was our only Italian speaker, so she ended up doing most of the talking. Kaori and I went to use the ladies and just didn't come back. Eventually they left and we were able to rescue Katherine.

At this point we were tired and decided to just call it a night. The three of us walked back across Rome admiring the city at night. Before parting we made plans to meet up the next evening.

Weird Rome

Day 85

The hostel basically throws everyone out early for a long lock out period. I didn't mind the early start though, I had a lot of things to see.

This is my second time in Rome. I've done all the big sites. This time I wanted to concentrate on things that not everyone has the time to see. I am traveling with a book called Weird Europe and it has loads of sites for Rome that were interesting to me. I parked myself at a coffee shop for a bit to figure out a game plan and I was off.

I didn't get far there. There were some random ruins that I took pictures of. Eventually I did make it to Scala Santa, or the Holy Stairs. These are said to be the stairs that were in Pontius Pilates house. There are holes cut out so that you can see what is claimed to be blood stains. There were loads of people walking up the staircase on their knees. I decided to skip that part.

My next weird stop was Santo Stefano Rotondo. Charles Dickens had visited this place and thought it was quite interesting. The church was built in 468 and is circular. What is so odd is that there are very graphic paintings of saints being martyred. To make it even odder, the paintings are all in pastel colors. I took some time exploring the different pictures and trying to figure out which saint was which.

Along the was to my next stop I passed a Roman race track among other ruins. There is old stuff all over the place here. I could just turn a random corner and then bam, some Roman thing would be on the side of the building. The big sites are really just a fraction of what this town has to offer.

My next stop was the one I was the most unsure of. My book is ten years old and I never know whether or not things exist any longer. When I found the ruins I was glad to see that the Torre Argentina Cate Shelter was still there. The funny thing is that I remember these ruins and even have a picture of them. I can't believe that I didn't stumble upon the cats on my first trip. Basically this is a place where people can drop off their unwanted house cats, and where feral cat can regularly be feed and given care when needed. There were about 300 cats here. I spent as much time as my allergies would allow petting them and giving them love. I wished that I could take one with me. Not that I have a home to give it at the moment.

The next two places that I tried to visit were closed for lunch. Slightly frustrated I headed for Santa Maria Supra Minerva not knowing if it too would be closed. Luckily it was opened. I was popping in here because they have a statue of Christ by Michelangelo. The odd thing about it is that he is naked. This was considered wrong and Michelangelo had to cover up the holy family jewels with a bronze loincloth. It was a bit odd.

After a quick stop at the Pantheon and Trevi fountain I headed to the St. Agnes Catacombs. Unfortunately, they were closed. This was especially unfortunate because it had taken me about an hour to walk here. However, they would be opened on Saturday and I could return.

The next church of the day was Sant Maria Maggiore. They claim to have the manger, as in away in a manger. It sits in a recessed bit of the church, under the alter. The planks look like they could be about anything and there is a rather cranky looking baby Jesus on top of them. Who knows if this is it, its just kinda interesting to look at.

Lastly I stopped off at the nearby Santa Prassede. Here a black and white marble column that is about a foot tall is said to be the column that Jesus was tied to while he was whipped. I took my picture and left. I was about churched out at this point and could no longer tell the difference between any of them.

At this point I was completely exhausted. I headed back to the hostel for the free dinner. It was pretty good, the free part making it taste all the better. I stayed in and chatted with the people in my room and went to sleep early. My day might have not been typically Roman, but it was typically Kathryn!

Sex in the (Roman) City or OMG I saw Tom Hanks!

Day 84

I got up early and said goodbye to Giovanni. He gave me a hug and told me to come back any time I would like. As I was killing time waiting for my train to Rome a guy come up and told me that his wallet had been stolen and asked if I could support him. He actually said support. I told him that I had lost money in Naples as well and asked if he would like to give me some money. He looked confused and then he asked if I could at least give him a euro. I told him to get away from me and he asked why. I answered because I wasn't going to give him anything so he mind as well stop wasting both of our times. He left at this.

The train ride was really uneventful, I simply watched ANTM on my ipod. When I got to Rome Termini I was wondering if it would be the same. It did look the same, just like every other train station I have been to, just busier. There was no time to dawdle though, I was a woman on a mission.

I found my hostel very quickly and as soon as I had dropped my stuff I was back out on the town. I had to find a movie theater that played original language films. Sex and the City had been out five whole days and I had not yet been able to see it. When I found the theater I realized that it did not open until 4pm and that I had about 4 hours to kill.

In a nearby square it looked like they were filming something. I asked what it was but the answer I got was in Italian. I figured that it wasn't American and didn't matter.

I didn't want to visit something new in my distracted mood, so I simply went to the Vatican. I had been there before and figured that it would be a good way to pass the time. While I was in the very long but fast moving line an Italian couple tried to but in front of me. I wasn't having any of it and told them to back off. The woman said to me that she is Italy. I said no, not Italy very rude. After that they stopped pushing me. Who the heck buts in line at a church!

St. Peters was exactly the same as I remembered it. I took pictures of the statues and mosaics that I am pretty sure I already have. What I had not seen before was the popes crypt below the cathedral. It was pretty amazing to see graves here from about the last 1000 years. St. Peters was only built about 400 years ago, I wonder if the tombs were brought in or if they came from an older church.

One I had finished this I slowly wandered back to the theater. I took pictures of the various random ruins that I ran past, along with Augustus' mausoleum. When I got back to the theater I still had time to kill and I went back to the square I had been in before. The movie set had moved and had gotten much larger. I noticed that they were all speaking American English. Curious I spent some time trying to see if I recognized anyone. I thought that I saw Ron Howard, but didn't know his face well enough to be sure. One of the actors under a shady tent and some ways from me looked a lot like Tom Hanks, but I couldn't be sure. I asked again what they were filming. It turns out that it was Tom Hanks and that they were filming Angels and Demons. I never got a good picture of him, but I did get a few good looks before I had to leave. Even Tom Hanks couldn't keep me away from Sex in the City.

The movie was wonderful, I couldn't have asked for better, everyone should go and see it!

That night I ended up at a pub crawl with a few people from the hostel. I even got a free t-shirt. However, it wasn't that much fun. I think that I might have outgrown these things a bit. I left early and walked back to the hostel through a quiet Rome.